Recruitment.

[Ruby]

Ruby bit her bottom lip as she imagined this.

"... That almost sounds like what these "Yeerks" do... That's a REALLY scary thought..."

She looked around at the doors they were passing.

"How much further to the obstacle course?"

[berserker09]

Paul nodded in agreement of her comment about it being sort of like the Yeerks.

"Actually, it is just through the door up ahead, but a minor note. There may or may not be gunfire in there."

Paul had heard about Kovu using live ammo in his sessions with the trainees.

[Ruby]

Ruby felt her fear spike a little at the mention of gunfire.

"Could... Could you check before we go in, please...?"

[gumby]

Ryan Miles and his fifteen man team of resistance fighters moved towards the crashed blade ship. The freezing Antarctic wind tore through his thick clothing. Even with piles of thermal coats, parkas and over shirts he was still freezing. He thought that Saskatchewan had been cold! That place was a bloody tropical resort compared to this icehole! That must be why they have their base here, Ryan thought. Hork-bajir being reptilian would quickly freeze to death and Taxxons would pop like balloons as their heavily liquid bodies expanded. Still, it was dangerous here, you could easily get lost in one of the bloody blizzards. They trudged on, hoping to get to the base soon.

Finally! He could see the outline of the bladeship only fifty feet away! He and his team sped up, running forward. He arrived and started looking for a door or a hatch. He started hammering on the black alien hull, yelling.

"Hey! Anyone in there? Let us in!" He waited, then not hearig any responce he went for a more drastic measure. He puleld out his handgun, and shot the hull twice. BLAM! BLAM! The gun fired and twin bullets spat out of the muzzle and onto the hull. There was two responding richoteing sounds as they bounded off, but anyone near that contact point would here it for sure.

[Ruby]

Ruby stopped sharply as Macie suddenly dropped into her pocket.
They'd both heard something. The sound - or sounds - seemed to have come from outside.

"Did-Did you hear that? Are we... Are we under attack...?"

[gumby]

Ryan waited a while longer, than slammed the hull with his guns butt. He was in no mood for elegance, his crew was freezing their asses off and so was he.

"Let us in!"

[berserker09]

Paul nodded at her question of the sound that was ringing. "Follow me. We can take a short cut through the obstacle course."

With that being said, he commenced to running through the obstacle course to make it to the closest door to the sound. It was pretty easy to move around most of the obstacles. He opened a small hatch near the end of course and opened it up.

"Is there anyone out here?" Turning back to Ruby, he made a sign that said she should find a place to hide.

[gumby]

Ryan was about to shoto the hull full-auto when twenty feet to his left, a small bright opening appeared in the glossy black hull. A faint voice called out from this hatch.

"Is anyone out there?" A flood of relief spreaded across his numb face. Finally out of this blasted cold! He motioned for his team to follow him, and they ran over to the hatch. He saw a man and a woman peering out through the opening into the blinding snow. Ryan put away his gun and waved at them.

"Over here! Let us in! We're ERF fighters, yeerk resistors like you!"

[Ruby]

Ruby nodded, understanding, and looked around. Macie crawled out over the edge of the pocket and scurried down her owner's leg and away, proceeded to one of the wall-looking things.

Ruby swiftly followed and got where she figured she'd be out of sight, gathering Macie up again, who got back into and peeked out of her pocket.

From there she listened to the human speech coming from outside, though not quite hearing what they were saying.

[berserker09]

Paul was hesitant at the idea of letting people in that could possibly be infested, but he did it anyway. He pushed a button that opened the door.

"Okay, but walk in with your hands held up or else your going to get attacked by the guard dogs."

It was a bluff, which Paul wished wasn't but what are you going to do. No one else was around to morph into a vicious animal.

[gumby]

"About time!" Ryan muttered. He and his team one by one crouched through the hatch and stood inside the alien vessel, all fifteen of them. Ryan pulled off his goggles and his hood. Holstering the gun, he and the other ERF soldiers put their hands up.

"Don't do anything dumb man, we're ERF fighters, resistance, yeerk killers, whatever you wanna call us. Are you the Animorph leader?"

[Ruby]

Ruby kept Macie in her pocket, hoping she was still out of view.

Now that the people outside had come in, she could hear the voices clearer.

She wondered how many people had boarded, but she certainly wasn't going to peek over or around to find out.

[berserker09]

Was Paul the animorph leader? That was a joke just to even think about.

"I hate to break it to you, but you all have just arrived at the training academy for Animorph recruits. The Animorph Leader does not even reside in this hemisphere as far as I know."

Paul wished that he had sent Ruby to go find help instead of telling her to hide.

"So exactly what are you doing down here?"

[gumby]

Dang. Only the training base, not the HQ. Bloody intel. Ryan cursed silently then said.

"We're Earth Resistance Force. We fight the yeerks guerrila style, inflicting much damage as possible. My names Ryan Miles and I'm in charge of the whole group. This is my team." He motioned to the peopel behind him pulling off masks and such. Two more ERF fighters walked forward to Ryan, who introduced them.

"These are my two second in commands, Pyro and Joseph." They both waved 'hello' then stood still. Ryan continued. "I came here looking for the head of the animorph resistance fighters, for I have a propistion for him. But look's like our intel was wrong. We thought this was a HQ, not a training center."

[Ruby]

Ruby listened, feeling a little better now that she knew what ERF stood for.
She listened as the main guy - Ryan, she had heard him say - introduce two of his team.
Maybe his team wasn't very big then.

She was listening so hard to as much as she could that she didn't notice that Macie had dropped to the floor before she jumped from her owner's leg.
Ruby looked down just as the rat was headed towards the door.

"Macie!" She whispered frantically - but she forgot one problem.
Being deaf, she never knew how loud her whispering was.